Nominet, the body that administers the .WALES & .CYMRU extensions recently announced that the 2 extensions have together achieved 20,670 registrations. This figure is a modest increase over the 19,000 figure that was reported in March 2016.
The domain was initially launched to much fanfare on St David’s Day (the patron saint of Wales) in 2015 and more than 10,000 domains were registered within the first month. Nominet said the domains had enjoyed a “fantastic” welcome since they were made available to the public. They claim that the combined total for the 2 extensions is in the top ten European geographical domains, in terms of online searches.
It claims that many registrants have chosen a .CYMRU or .WALES domain name for their personal email addresses. High-profile organisations have also embraced these Welsh domains including the Football Association of Wales, the Welsh Government and the Federation of Small Businesses.
Interestingly, the Welsh national team’s performance at the Euro 2016 football tournament saw a campaign by the registry aimed at fans to capitalise on the patriotic fervour sweeping the country. At the time, Jonathan Ford, chief executive officer of the Football Association of Wales said:
Qualifying for our first major tournament since 1958 has certainly given Wales a strong international profile and we hope individual fans will keep that going by registering for the .cymru and .wales domains and helping Wales to stick out from the crowd.